Review: The Black Series – First Order Stormtrooper Ultimate Pack

All remaining systems will bow to the First Order…

Today I’m reviewing Hasbro’s Star Wars First Order Stormtrooper ultimate pack. It’s an US Amazon exclusive, released to commemorate the launch of Rian Johnson’s sublime, The Last Jedi.

This exclusive pack contains one figure and eight accessories. However, there is some false advertising at play with these eight accessories. The back of the package reveals the heavy duty blaster with the stock except there is no stock included, there’s just the standard blaster with the figure.

And the blaster with the stock is the one the Heavy Gunners use in the movies so unless you have a Black Series First Order Snowtrooper or a MAFEX First Order Stormtrooper, you can’t accurately recreate the accurate Heavy Gunner trooper. That’s a bit disappointing, considering they made a big pack with all these accessories and didn’t think to include the movie accurate blaster with a stock.

The Figure:

Apart from this problem, the rest of the accessories are great! I love the Heavy Gunner accessories so I’m really happy Hasbro finally made one in 6 inch format! All the more since the S.H. Figuarts Heavy Gunner is really expensive right now! And Hasbro didn’t just give the simple Heavy Gunner accessories, they also included a backpack you can attach to it like one of the troopers seen on Jakku in The Force Awakens (if you pay attention there’s a few in the background in The Last Jedi). There’s an ammunition shoulder you can attach to the Heavy Gunner accessory too, there’s a trooper in The Force Awakens who sports it during the Starkiller sequence except he has a white pauldron. Speaking of the variation in pauldron, that’s what’s missing along with the blaster stock in this ultimate pack.

If your trooper of choice is the riot control trooper, you can also create one with the accessories and this time Hasbro has made an improvement, the riot control weapon can be used in either combat or deactivated mode. The first one Hasbro released within the 2015 Black Series Riot Control Trooper/Poe Dameron set didn’t have the fight mode which was disappointing.

Up Close:

Finally, the trooper also comes with a set of macrobinoculars. However, as the elbow articulation is limited you can’t physically achieve a pose that looks like he’s actually looking into them. It’s a frustrating problem with the Black Series First Order Stormtrooper, he’s fully articulated (16 points of articulation) but the elbow joint articulation is far too limited unlike the MAFEX and S.H. Figuarts incarnations. Even when he holds the blaster, it’s not really easy because of the elbow articulation. Apart from that, the figure has quite a nice sculpt, and good articulation. The trooper even has the updated helmet with the mouthpiece used in The Last Jedi which is not the same as in The Force Awakens.

Final Thoughts:

Despite, the problems this pack has, it’s a must-have for army builders and First Order Stormtrooper lovers. It’s probably the only way you’ll ever get a Heavy Gunner trooper at a reasonable price!